So I think it is time to write something from my perspective and how I see myself and other people doing, training and competing in agility.

As a handler before and sometimes today I expect a lot from my dogs on competitions and training.If some mistake(s) happen I will still finish the course happy (not as happy as I would be with a winning run) but I will have the same attitude as always to reward my dogs and play with them because they deserve that.

As I mentioned in my blogs before WE ARE DOING AGILITY BECAUSE OF OURSELVES, NOT BECAUSE OF OUR DOGS and in this point we have to reward them for everything.Yes dogs are doing mistakes. But that is normal!!! Is any human able to work all the time without mistakes?????? NO, NOT FOR SURE!

As a judge, competitor and trainer I can see a lot of different treatments to the dogs.Maybe as a trainer not that much because people who are attending my seminars know they are not allowed to be hard to the dogs but as a judge and competitor I can see it more often.When you are standing in the ring and people are running your course and some misunderstandinghappened ,some of the handlers are blaming the dogs. you can clearly see that on their faces but in that moment they didn’t see their self how stupid they were handling that even, I who build the course - and I know the numbers, could not guess what they want.

Judging contacts is not that easy and I am always, if I am not sure, trying not to judge it. It’s interesting to see peoples reactions if you judge or you don’t judge the contact.If the dog is in the contact with one toe, and you don’t judge, handlers will continue to run but if the dog miss the contact with one toe and I will judge it they will stop and scream and put the dog back on the contact.

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? THAT THE DOG UNDERSTANDS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING IN OR OUT OF THE CONTACT FOR 2 cm?????????

Maybe to ask yourself if it was your fault or if you trained your dog well enough???As a judge I needed to throw out a few people from the course because I didn’t like the attitude and how they were treating the dogs.

As a competitor I am not pleased when my dogs are missing the contacts but I am also not blaming them. I know that my Border Collie doesn’t have reliable running A frame contacts and if he misses I will not blame on him. I will go out, play and be happy. Not in the same way as if he would be clear, but still positive because I know mine and his weaknesses.I go crazy when my Malinois misses the up contact, but not on her. I go crazy on the stupid rule which gives you a mistake. If she jumps the down contact on the dogwalk I will not blame her because now we are training running contacts a lot and 2o2o not that often and it’s normal that she will miss it sometimes because of less training it.

As a competitor I see even more bad things. People getting angry on the dogs when they go out from the field, putting on the leash and still screaming on the dog “what did you do there or there”.I don't uderstand what people are getting with taking the dogs out from the middle of the course?They are punishing them or showing them they did something wrong and dogs are understanding that?

DO YOU REALLY THINK YOUR DOG KNOWS THAT HE JUMPED THE CONTACT 30 sec AGO AND THAT HE WILL UNDERSTAND WHY YOU ARE ANGRY?????????

Do you think dogs are waking up in the morning and thinking “today I will make my handler ridiculous on competition and I will make mistakes on the course” ?They can't always have great days, just like we can't. They are making mistakes because of us, maybe not trained good enough or just being less concentrated in that moment. For me it’s just a normal thing and part of agility and training.

And NO I DON’T THINK I AM great with my dogs and that I am not doing some wrong things but at least I am trying to find out what was wrong and why they did something.

Just try to put yourself in their position and think why they did some mistakes.

I started to do agility in 1992. with my first mix dog which I found on the street. I was just 12 when I started to train agility and from the first moment I fell in love in that sport. Every Saturday I was waiting for morning to go to train. All the money I got I was saving for the competitions because it was mine main thing in the life. I never went out (that much) with my friends from school, because agility was much more interesting. Having problems in school my parents knew that they will fix if they will forbid me training or competitions and after one or two days situation in school was better :) Waking up every morning before school to take my dogs out and coming home to do homework as soon as it possible just to get to train with my dogs made my life much easier. I knew my goals. Results were coming and I was more and more into agility. I remember that I was always jealous on football or tennis players who were able to live from their hobby and was always dreaming that I will be able to do the same from agility. I went to university and always during study I was working something to earn some money for competitions. First dog which was not mine I started to train when I was 16 and from then I started to earn some money from something I really like. Training dogs in Croatia doesn’t bring you money that you can live from, so I always needed to do something else with that. When I finished studying I was thinking to work in wellness world and not from dogs. It was hard to get all the time free days to go to competitions and then I said “ I will just try to do it” so I quit my work and totally putted my focus into agility.Today I am able to live from agility seminars and I NEVER EVER regretted it!!!!!!!!!!!! You can’t wish for more. Travelling, meeting new people, countries, enjoying work you do it just can’t be better. Every single seminar I have I am really enjoying it and doing it with a lot of passion. Sometimes when people ask me: ”When you go for vacation” I just answer: ”Why? All my work is vacation for me, because I am really enjoying it!” I have to thank to the people who are organizing seminars and people who are coming to train with me, because without them it would not be possible to do that. Of course I have to thank to my dogs who are bringing me good results and keeping me always somewhere in the top of agility. I have to say once more: I HAVE THE BEST WORK IN THE WORLD AND I WOULD NEVER EVER CHANGE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

For the ones who didn't understand the point of the first part of my blog, here I will write a little bit more details. My point was not to judge or point the finger to people who start to train early, especially the ones who don't know when and how to start. Even if I think some of those people are aware of the risks starting early. It´s always good to ask other – more experienced handlers – how to start when you don´t know yourself. Advices are there to be given. I was writing this blog to discuss about this and to hear others, their opinions, just like I shared mine. I start with my young dogs ´agility ´ in a way to introduce them to the obstacles (running through tunnels, turning left and right as tricks, training them 2o2o positions…). I am always focused on basic things, which are for me the most important and very helpful in a later stage of training agility with your dog. I am not impressed to see a young dog doing already combinations, and lately it looks like that is very important and appreciated. It is also very important that people, who choose to start with a grown up dog, are not trying to be in a hurry and to expect to accomplish a lot in a short time. It's only to start late and then to overreact!

I start with letting my dogs jump when they are 12 months. I think there is enough time - for those who plan to start competitions when the dog is 18 months (or older) - to let the dog getting used to different jumping heights till the competition height is reached. In 6 months a dog can develop a lot in training. All the things to prepare them for agility life are important for sure. Any kind of tricks, balance training, body awareness are useful, sometimes even necessary, before starting agility. Long walks, swimming, conditional training and of course warming up the dog before working - cooling down after, are things also not to forget!

I was thinking a lot for a long time to consider writing about the subject ’training puppies and young dogs’ for agility. I would like to give my opinion after seeing more and more video‘s from people training there young dogs. First of all I have a few questions for people starting with young dogs doing agility:What do you think to accomplish with that????Are you thinking about your dog/s at all or are you just thinking about you being good??? (probably second part) Do you think you will be better and your dogs will be better trained if you start so early??Do you think when your dog is 8 years old and he is not able to run agility anymore that it is normal??Do you have dogs for making yourself popular or to have them as pets­­­? I am doing agility for more than 20 years now and I am living from agility. My dogs are making that possible for me but still they are not just my tools to earn money. First of all they are my pets and earning money because of them comes on the 2nd place. I am choosing my dog for agility when she/ he is a puppy but I am choosing the one who‘s character fits me the most. I start to train them immediately but not for agility. I train them for living a normal life as dogs need to live in an urban environment. For me it is really important that my dogs are being social in every situation, in every surrounding… Things like making them playful and crazy about the toy and giving them a lot of drive are in my opinion more important than teaching them to do obstacles. They are puppies and they need time to grow up, not only mentally but also physically. A lot of people have the opinion that they are running and jumping anyway while they go for a walk. But letting a puppy having fun during natural behaviour is one thing, training them young with risks for injuries is another thing. So a lot of preparation before their sport life begins. For me it is a total fail when a young dog, getting trained to do obstacles, is not able to react on the owner while surrounded with other dogs or being in a new environment. I want them to be able to concentrate on me wherever we are and not to be confused and insecure in a new environment. But still the most important thing for me is that they will live a long and healthy life. I will not push them through hard training when they are young, not to risk any injury or overtraining. I don’t think my dogs are less trained then some others who start to do agility with puppies who are few months (or some few weeks) old.I can call that people selfish, only thinking about success for themselves and not thinking about the dogs. Another thing is overtraining the dogs and making them not able to run agility when they are only 8 years old (or even younger). Usually that people say: ha, my dog is old he needed to stop agility because of a back problem or some other injury. Come on, I think between the age 4-8 the dog is in the best shape for agility. And in the end just remember one thing:We are all doing agility because of ourselves and not because of the dogs. Dogs are enjoying agility because we thought them that. They would be happy if they would run the whole day for the ball or just going for a walk for hours or any other activity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!